“Typography matters because it helps conserve the most valuable resource you have as a writer—reader attention. Attention is the reader’s gift to you. That gift is precious. It is finite. And if you fail to be a respectful steward of that gift, it will be revoked.”
— Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers.
“Like oratory, music, dance, calligraphy—like anything that lends its grace to language—typography is an art that can be deliberately misused. It is a craft by which the meanings of a text (or its absence of meaning) can be clarified, honored and shared, or knowingly disguised.”
— Robert Bringhurst in the opening chapter to The Elements of Typographic Style.
“Writing begins with the making of meaningful marks. That is to say, leaving the traces of meaningful gestures. Typography begins with arranging meaningful marks that are already made. In that respect, the practice of typography is like playing the piano—an instrument quite different from the human voice.”
— Robert Bringhurst in chapter 10 of The Elements of Typographic Style.